Musings….. Author Anthony P. Griffin

Month: April 2017

Recently Oklahoman Congressman Markwayne Mullin stood before his constituents and complained about to their complaining, telling them, it’s “bull crap” that constituents pay his congressional salary. I’m confused why anyone is confused, insulted, or put upon by his statement. He merely stated the unspoken. The word rude is an adjective, and means “discourteous or impolite, especially in a deliberate way.” Rude, ruder, rudest are variations on the theme, expressing degrees of discourteousness. No matter the tense, I muse to say I believe we have become a ruder society (for a long time), progressively ruder and growing. Deliberately, unintentionally, matters not, we are ruder, cloaked under the guise of convenience. A progressive fungus first appearing in the public sector, migrating to the private sector, then on to the populace.

Public employees hidden behind a series of voice mails, promising to get back with us, never fulfilling that promise, forever shocked when we learn the inside number. “How did you get this number?” Forgetting we pay their salaries.

“Push 1, please”. One doesn’t work; works only two out of ten times. They – those on the other end of the phone – are disappointed that it worked at all, on those two occasions.

“Can you hold?”

“No, no, please don’t put me on hold.”

“Push 2, please”. Pushing two works a little better; something about the percentages; a percentage of callers will be filtered out, after messing with pushing one – one – two – three times; allowing frustration, resignation to take hold, much like a genetic trait, part and parcel of the calculus.

Farming out consumer service to other countries, a little better, most times nicer, somewhat akin to exporting convenience (or is that inconvenience?), exported, across county, state lines, across one, two oceans.

Developing, making sure our input is not a computer bot, requiring us to type in symbols and number – Y O U W I L L 7 N E V E R 1 1 G E T T H R O U G H F O O L 7. Answering after successfully typing in the required letters/number, after three times; the first time not able to read the code, the second time, entering the correct letters/numbers, being told we erred, “try again” or “you can call this number”, third time, getting through and reaching not a real person, but a computer bot.

Primed over the years, wondering why we can’t talk to a real person, instead retreating, adopting the same behavior, emailing “I love you”, before going back to your favorite television show. Hiding behind caller I.D., pretending to have never received the call, lying, lying, lying, pretending the phone broke again for the thirtieth time this year. My, my, my, oh … oh …. Oh … how we have learned, how we have changed.

I dreamt – now I believe, convinced country and western music has the solution. To the Congressman, public employees, those in the private sector who play the game of transfer, never answering our questions (“Can you hold?”), to our friends hiding behind their phones (laughing about the irony, never being available, always busy, lying on cue): “Where did you come from? Where did you go? What did come from? Where did you go? What did I say? Bullshit!” You got it right; the appropriate response to rudeness is calling out the rude, rude, rudeness, kicking the right leg, Cotton Eye Joe-ing across the landscape, pronouncing bullshit (proudly, loudly), picking up the bull dung and flinging it back. Bullshit.

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The weather forecaster foretold of impending rain. She, Mother Nature, refused to cooperate; hinting, promising, remaining cloistered, refusing – for three days – she did. Scanning the horizon, searching for rain gear, guessing – I did – visiting the recesses, seeing how things have changed. No more standing in the wind, smelling nature’s musk predicting the arrival of the first drop. Habits adopted as a motorcyclist, during my youth, playing little attention to the suited visitors smiling outward from the screen. Seeing Daddy Louis stand among the freshly plowed furrows, anchored in history, relying on Farmer’s Almanacs, the moon’s path, a trained and acute sense of smell, me not then understanding fully, appreciating later, as if gifted his wont – by osmosis, perhaps, by his God, maybe? Mimicking, standing, turning, turning, turning, pointing outward, upward, predicting her behavior, the first drop, accurately on most occasions. No smart phone, no strange voice providing directions, no weather gauge hanging in the corner, the total absence of a weather forecaster auditing for a different position in the newsroom hierarchy – smiling, joking – engaging, before providing the forecast. Louis Wright’s stance and movement was a common practice, relying on the land, recognizing the life-sustaining nature of her gifts – the words “climate change” were never part of the vocabulary – praying, dancing, pleading, sensing droughts, predicting rain, studying her contours – the wind, sun, moon, wafting – wafting – musk – tell-tale signs of dependency – of her gifts.

Picking one, the one was of Mozambique origin. “Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest, situated on Africa’s southeastern coast,” with the Indian Ocean lapping its eastern border. A recipe which borrowed from the sea, the inhabitants of the land, her colonizers (Mozambique was a former colony of Portugal, for some five centuries), the rhythms of the continent. Unsweetened coconut, medium size white onions, crushed tomatoes, garlic, Mozambican or Alaskan king crabs recommended, blended ingredients, providing balance, telling a story – a crab curry (Caranguejo e Coco), coconut crab curry.

Crying not because of sadness, not because of worry; stopping, rushing to the sink to wiping with the smallest finger’s tip, tilting to the right, as if tilting was going to control the sting or stop the tears; tilting anyway. Seeing in my eyes/memory the words, “mince the onions”, getting back on task, scraping with the blade of the knife – up – down – up – down – measuring by sight – into a collective heap – seeing the pieces were still a little too large – up – down – up – down – crying as if remembering, as if reminded.

Food and Agricultural Organizations of the United Nations publishes a list of the producers of coconuts. Indonesia, Philippines, India, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam top the list. Mozambique shows up as the twentieth largest producer. The continental United States fails to make the list (the territory of Puerto Rico shows up number sixty-eighth on the list). Dark hair women colored my vision; coconuts slipped safely into bags to refrigerated containers – to rail, to ships, by air – to world markets, complimented by sun, enhanced by dance. Day-o, day-ay-ay-o.

Okay, okay, okay… Day-O is a banana song, “collected in six, seven, eight foot bunches”. Day-o, day-ay-ay-o. I digressed, but I hope you get my point. The imagination of mind controlling actions, visiting other countries, remaining in place, taste buds and dreams intermingled with others of different hues and tongues … crying … cropping … dreaming.

China, Norway, Vietnam, United States, India, and Canada are the six largest exporters of seafood. Holding crab purporting of to be Alaskan King Crabs, if so, harvested by men and women under circumstances, in environments, causing the profession to remain “one of the most dangerous jobs” in the United States. The onions which caused me to lament may have come from the United States. Perhaps, likely, in the United States remains one of the world’s largest dry onion producers, behind China, and India, ahead of Brazil, Japan and Iran.

Passing time, believing the recipe’s preparation time, overshooting the time, never minding time lost, enjoying the diversion, the stops along the way, the visits, travel, smells, sharing of cultures. Stopping, remembering I forgot to cook the rice, pulling the package down from the shelf, reading the package, “Product of Thailand”, smiling, singing, dancing, cooking, tasting…Day-o, day-ay-ay-o.